Instead of campaigning for AV, which would lead to only cosmetic changes in political culture, why not campaign for a change that would really shake things up?

If you want MPs to be really responsive to the electorate rather than to the party hierarchies and the whips, then open primaries are the way to go. Compulsory open primaries for all the main parties, at least.

At the moment, if an MP rebels, the whips can threaten to totally end her career by withdrawing the whip, thus losing the party label at the next election. Few would see it as feasible to run as an independent.

Open primaries would allow the electorate to effectively short list the candidates they will subsequently choose between.

Someone selected in an open primary and then elected by FPTP would be much more democratically accountable and representative of a broader swathe of the electorate than someone elected merely by AV.

“Open primaries would allow the electorate to effectively short list the candidates they will subsequently choose between.”

Good point, the US system has it’s faults but the issues are discussed in their primaries with a wide range of candidates. I like the idea of registered voters although I do feel that it could lead to many people who for Labour or the Tories only to weaken them by choosing a candidate who was unelectable.
For instance Nick Cohen says he votes Labour, I doubt he ever put his tick next to a Labour candidate in the privacy of polling booth. If you read his columns and interpret his views, they are to the right of the Mail

@ 2

I haven’t read Nick Cohen’s columns for a while because it seemed to me he kept saying the same thing. Perhaps because it was I basically agreed with his thesis – that Islamofascism is bad – that I didn’t really feel the need to be reminded of it too often.

From my perspective (mainstream Conservative) what Cohen used to write about unions, domestic policy, etc. all seemed pretty Left wing. It was only on the Iraq War, Israel and so on that he appeared to depart from much of the Left and I’m not sure these are/ should be left-right issues anyway.

Cohen was not alone. All those Lefties like Christopher Hitchens, the Euston manifesto group, Martin Bright, were writing the same stuff. It was more a split in the Left than a move rightwards. They are all still fundamentally statist and egalitarian to a fault.

I’m not seeing the link between the expenses scandal and the electoral system.

“From my perspective (mainstream Conservative) what Cohen used to write about unions, domestic policy, etc. all seemed pretty Left wing. It was only on the Iraq War, Israel and so on that he appeared to depart from much of the Left and I’m not sure these are/ should be left-right issues anyway.”

Read his standpoint and observer columns and tell me how he differs from say Michael Gove or Charles Moore.

@ 5

Just read Cohen’s Observer columns for the past few weeks – and they confirm my view that the man’s a roaring Leftie.

Samples:

Most conservative economic writing in Britain today cannot face the consequences of the bailout. If rightwing commentators are not straight liars, then their sins of omission fatally compromise what honest intent they possess.

In the week in which George Osborne presented a budget whose punishment of the humble for a recession brought on by the mighty looks nastier by the day…..

The suicides at the vast Foxconn plant in Shenzhen ought to shake outsiders. They ought to make them wonder about the human cost to the 420,000 workers who make those nifty iPhones and iPads which so delight savvy westerners. Workers sleep in corporate dormitories, where an ever-shifting population of migrants makes it hard to form friendships, let alone relationships. The basic pay is $130 a month and overtime is essential. Most work 12 hours a day under the eyes of a fanatical management.

Satirists caricature Liberals – and I think we can now stop calling them “Liberal Democrats” as their alliance with the right has sundered their links with the social democratic tradition – as muesli-munching, Observer-reading, real-ale-drinking members of the progressive middle class. The events of last week have smashed that caricature into 1,000 pieces. Instead of going with Labour, the leaders of middle-class liberalism went into David Cameron’s coalition. Far from adding grit to an administration dominated by the children of the rich, they toffed it up and raised the average cabinet member’s net worth by tens of thousands of pounds.